Full Assessment - will not having anyone historic to bring be a big problem?

It's interesting how you say that photos helped to elicit memories from your childhood. I never looked at any childhood photos to aid remembering evidence of Autism. Luckily my long term memory is very strong, I can remember being a baby and I can remember lots of really specific incidences from my childhood in really high detail (side note. Are baby memories an autistic thing? Supposedly, people are not able to remember anything from before the age of two but I definitely have memories from before then from when I was very young! Does anyone else have baby memories?). 

With regards to evidence of autism. I remembered how when I was 3 or 4 I used to spend hours sorting the buttons from my mum's button box into different groups according to colour, shape and size. It was my favourite activity for a while. I remembered how I struggled to make friends right from when I was at playschool. I remember my first day at infant school, I was sat on a table with an older girl at lunchtime. She had a small piece of fluff on her cheek that was really bugging me the entire time that I was trying to eat my lunch so eventually I had to tell her about it. I remembered how I started getting obsessed with things when I was 5 such as hobbies and how although I struggled to make friends I was picked twice in junior school to be on the inter-school quiz team. My Primary school reports always said that I was good at my school work but shy! There is much more, too much to write here.

It was like a history project I guess. Going back over everything to find the evidence that I needed.

Yes, I also took some weeks over it. And it was appreciated! If you have any old photos, they might be useful. Even if they just help you to remember. I dug out only a few that were obviously useful. Two seemed to show something that now looks rather like stimming. And I could even quite vividly remember the photo being taken, and my reaction to it being taken; which still strikes me as bizarre (as it did also even then). Viewing those two reminded me of a lot of other behavioural issues. Another photo showed me as a very young club member, in uniform. Not especially enlightening in itself, but it reminded me how badly I fared with the special tests of that club, how dyspraxic I was and how I was often inclined to not conform to their rules; all very much things that tend to happen on the spectrum. And perhaps evidence of ADD.

School & college reports may also be quite evocative. And I even found a newspaper report from 50 years ago that reminded me that my whole year at school failed a crucial exam; despite the presence of people who definitely went on to achieve. That was proof that the local education system had really gone out of its way to be deliberately obstructive. And as a result of that I remembered meeting an old primary school teacher of mine just a few years back, and his remarking that he really couldn't do anything with me. I also spoke to a few people I went to primary school with or played with. All the people mentioned above had no idea that I was heading for an assessment, but reminisced in a very friendly and useful manner for old times sake. Again, they didn't always provide direct evidence, but they evoked further useful memories to include in my report. I even remembered a run-in with an occupational therapist that took a bizarre twist with her informing me she knew what my problem was, but then making no effort to inform me. Doubtless that ended up only in some paper-shufflers filing cabinet and is still acquiring  dust somewhere in a completely useless manner. That left me thinking that I was probably bipolar, which I had already observed in a former colleague. But that memory later proved to be useful to me, And then going back 40 years, I remembered a special needs teacher telling me about her classic autism students; a real rarity at the time. Useful to me because I now see she was beginning to wonder about myself, who just happened to work with her husband.

I treated it as a history project really, and ended up enjoying the process; and it even began me on the path of sorting thru a few issues before the assessment. Take your time over it in a fairly relaxed fashion and you might well turn up a lot of useful evidence.

It can take quite a while to remember all of the salient points from your childhood. I went over my entire life history, especially my childhood, in my head with a fine toothed comb for about 3 years before I even asked to be referred for assessment. I had to pick apart all of my memories to find evidence of autism myself before I felt comfortable to ask for an assessment. Try not to rush writing your summary, it needs time.

You know what?

The sheer fact that this is such an issue for you, plus the lengths you're going to to try to fulfil the obligation is a pretty good indicator in itself...

Thankyou everyone for the responses. I sent the consent form back and wrote on it explaining again that I dont have anyone from my childhood.

I will write down a summary of things i remember from my childhood and take it to them. I have also contacted my school but it has been 25 years and they do not have any of my old reports sadly but I hope they will at least understand that I tried. 

Thankyou again :-)

Thankyou Qwerty (and everyone who has replied!), this is a great idea, I will write a breakdown of my childhood with some examples that I retrospectively think were due to this and take it to them so they know I want to cooperate as best I can

Thankyou :-) 

I had support from my primary school, things like the sensory room and just weekly sessions in the forest for special people.

i went to the doctors routinely at around 5 or 6

I had a private assessment and it wasn't a problem whatsoever. I didn't think my parents account of my early years, some thirty years ago, would be the most accurate account of things anyway.

It would have been better for you to have been told. At least then you would have had a better understanding of yourself and it may have influenced decisions that you made, even as a child. Did you get any support from services with your autism when you were a child or did you fact that you’re autistic get completely brushed under the carpet?

I could understand when I was a small kid but as I got older I would have wanted to know coming from them.

That kind of stuff is the thing that could break me, pain, challenges and emotional stuff will never break me but being kept out of stuff can affect me.

That's terrible that your parents didn't tell you and you had to find out by digging through your old records!!!

I was just a kid when I was physiologically examined.

i remember the first session when someone first suspected I was wrong in some way, the assessor came to give an opinion based on her first impressions. It happened in an office room in my primary school. I had to fill out one of those tests with the agree and disagree questions.

It was probably around one week later that I found myself having to travel round the corner into the local doctors surgery upstairs into the neurological department. I either went there or round to the building round the corner which sole purpose is to help autistic people.

It was very hard though because at the time I didn’t know what was going on and until I was 14 I had no idea why I was the way I was.

I was never actually told by my parents straight, it took me to do digging into my medical records and primary school records after I was being called into the Special needs area of my grammar school.

In my primary school pack everything about it was normal until you reached the back where it had a list of my strengths and weaknesses alongside the typical ASD strengths and weaknesses. The page after had a whole page devoted to autism and that was the moment it all made sense (well that did, life is still confusing on the daily).

Hi, I didn't take anyone with me to my assessment and it was ok and I still got a diagnosis based on my ADOS results and my own historical account of autism symptoms since early childhood. Not everyone has family members that they can involve in the assessment. Maybe phone the centre and explain the situation. Hopefully it will be fine.

I was able to gather some very helpful history from people and photos, but as it was 'private' (I can't use NHS from abroad), no medical records were available. In any case, I doubt a 1950s country GP's records would have said much of any relevance. They might not even have been legible. But in fairness to NHS records, I was assured by a very helpful contact person that my records were still extant, and also where they could be found. And apparently, it is possible to apply to see and copy your own records. They would probably still need interpreting by a medical professional, though. Might even be in medical shorthand, for instance. Now, you are possibly younger than myself, and your GP might have made some relevant notes. Has your GP been contacted to arrange some sort of transfer of your medical records to the assessors?

I had the exact same worry as you when I was going through my diagnosis process! It was quite a specific requirement written on the website, and it actually impeded my process of asking for an assessment in the first place. As it said that they require you to being someone from childhood, otherwise they may not have enough evidence to make a conclusion, and since the waiting process was so long, I felt like it might not be worth it if they decide I couldn't complete the assessment. At the end, I did go to the assessment by myself, and got a diagnosis I did write a couple of pages summary of my recollection of my childhood, so I think having those memories helped. If you could send in something like that when you return your questionnaires, it would be helpful. 

I declined to give details of family and it wasn't an issue.

As @originalprankster says, just reply re-stating that unfortunately you cannot supply details of anyone who knew you as a child

Hi,I was asked to bring someone who had known me for a long time to my assessment but as I do not know anyone like that as I can not make and keep friends-I went alone and it was no problem. You should contract the assessment team and let them know but I do not see it as a major obstacle, they just want to fill out their picture of you as best as they can and although another person may have been helpful, it is not essential.

Good LucK!

I'd suggest responding to the letter and reiterating that you aren't in contact with anyone from your childhood and have not kept records from that period.

A 'good' assessor - i.e. one who is familiar with assessing adults will be familiar with the situation where there may be no-one who can provide information relating to you in childhood and equally no pertinent records.

I don't know myself how they will handle this, but they may simply ask you directly about your childhood - I didn't have any of the old school reports my psychologist was keen to see and my parents weren't always a big help...

"You seemed normal to us..."

"You were our first child so..."

"No-one knew to look out for signs of autism when we had you..."

etc.

This didn't stop me being diagnosed as being autistic, despite being 'low needs / high-functioning' (I don't know what the correct replacement for 'Asperger Syndrome' is now...) and having 40+ years of 'masking' experience that in theory could have hidden the more obvious traits from someone who was just carrying out a 'tick box' exercise...

Best of luck.